Fanbo Zeng, a 6’11” 22-year-old with 3-and-D potential, is joining the Brooklyn Nets on an Exhibit 10 contract. The signing is expected to announced if not Monday then before Media Day Tuesday
Fanbo is the 21st and final player on the Nets roster as the team heads into Media Day on Tuesday. He is the ninth Chinese player in the NBA and the third to play for the Nets either in New Jersey or Brooklyn, a record for any franchise. The Nets, of course, are co-owned by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai who are of Chinese heritage.
Fanbo will be the second Chinese player in the league this season, joining Hansen Yang, the 7-foot teenager who the Trail Blazers surprisingly took at No. 16 in June’s draft.
The signing comes a little less than three weeks before the Nets and Suns will play two games in Macao on October 10 and 12, part of the NBA China Games. The games are the first time NBA teams will play in China since 2019 when a tweet by then Rockets GM Daryl Morey encouraging demonstrations against Beijing derailed the league’s relationship with its second biggest market. The game have been preceded by a steady stream of visits to the people’s republic by NBA stars including LeBron James, Steph Curry, Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Draymond Green and D’Angelo Russell.
While Fanbo is expected to be a big draw in China both at the NBA China Games and in Nets marketing, whether in Brooklyn or Beijing, he’s made it clear that he hopes this contract is his first stop on the road to a more permanent place in the NBA.
Zeng was born in Harbin in China’s far north but spent much of his youth in the U.S., first as a four-star recruit at a Florida high school, where he was named All-State in his sophomore year, then with G League Ignite. He even had a Summer League stint with the Pacers as a 19-year-old before returning to China in 2022 where he played with the Beijing Ducks. This past season, he won the Chinese Basketball Association’s Most Improved Player award and being named first team All-CBA.
As China Daily noted when word of the Nets interest was first reported nearly two months ago:
Representing Beijing Ducks in the CBA’s 2024-25 campaign, Zeng averaged a career-high 14.7 points, shooting 41 percent from 3-pointers, 4.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.5 blocks in 37 regular-season games, marking his best year in the domestic league since joining Beijing in 2022.
The 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) forward contributed 15 points to go with 4.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per night in five playoffs appearances, helping the Ducks reach the semifinals, where he hurt his back in a hard Game 2 fall against the Shanxi Loongs, ending his best season prematurely.
At virtually every stop in his career, Fanbo has shown particular skill at deep shooting and shot-blocking. Here’s some recent Chinese Basketball Association highlights:
His role on the Nets is to be determined. As an Exhibit 10, he will have an opportunity to compete for a standard deal or more likely the open two-way, but the most likely outcome is that he will waived and join the Long Island Nets. On Sunday, ND’s Scott Mitchell talked with Long Island’s head coach, Mfon Udofia, about his impressions of Fanbo who he’s already spent time with in Brooklyn.
“Fanbo, first of all, is a really good human being,” Udofia told Mitchell. “High character individual. Then, from the basketball side, he has a really good skill set, can shoot the ball, and his athleticism is good. I’m excited to coach him, excited to have him, and I think he’ll play very well for both teams.”
Long Island is expected to an incubator for Fanbo and the so-called Flatbush 5, the Nets five first round picks in the 2025 Draft. He is, at 22, the ninth youngest player on the roster.
China is pushing its best to join NBA and top European clubs, hoping the experience will help them develop and the national team win games. Both Hansen Yang and Zeng passed on playing for Team China in FIBA Asia Cup … with the Chinese federation’s blessing. Yao Ming, himself a product of the NBA, is president of the federation.
It’s part of a People’s Republic plan to resurrect its basketball program which has fallen on hard times in recent years. Joe Tsai has been part of the effort, setting up the Joe Tsai Scholarship Fund for promising Chinese teenagers who come to the U.S. for training, much as Fanbo did at Windemere Academy in Florida. Tsai also is financing a first-of-its-kind 12-team, three-nation Asian University Basketball League which opened play with a tournament last month and will field a complete schedule next season.
Now, his team is for the second straight year offering a Chinese player a chance to get NBA experience. A year ago, 6’8” wing Jacky Cui was signed to a two-way deal but tore his ACL in December and was waived after being declared out for the season. Cui has returned to China.
